Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Five Reasons to Celebrate the New Year

I’m really not into making New Year’s resolutions but this is a good time to reflect on the past and make plans for the future or make changes, so here are some ideas for your classroom along that line…

1. Take a picture of your class once a week engaged in some type of learning activity; post it to a blog and describe. Solicit comments from students about what they liked/disliked or what else they would like to know about the topic.2. Have one student each week record an audio podcast of something that was learned, an announcement of upcoming events, or even a public service type of announcement and post to your website.3. Create a USTREAM account and broadcast one lesson per week.4. Expand your teaching resources by setting up a SKYPE account and contacting one outside source per week.5. Pick the top 5 challenges on TAKS. Divided you class into small groups, and then have each group make a TAKS review video and present to the class. Videos can be posted online and shared with other classes.

If you have more ideas please share in the comments, and let me know if you need help with any of the New Year’s Celebration events above!